Blog to blog, redux

 Last December, I wrote about a blog that displays postal covers from around the world.  The blog's author, Daniel Mathieu, solicits postal covers from like-minded people: those with beautiful stamps and interesting postmarks receive extra thanks.  So back in December, I sent an envelope with the newly issued USPS Revolutionary War stamps.  Then a couple weeks ago during National Letter Writing Month, I sent another cover with brand new stamps depicting famous individuals of the Revolutionary War.  President George Washington was an obvious choice to use, in combination with the Marquis de Lafayette, a nod towards the important contributions of France in obtaining American freedom.  This time, in addition to a letter using my best Duolingo French, I included some photo postcards of my hometown, Birmingham, Alabama.  Daniel shows these in his post, along with some links to additional info for those who might wish to know more about Washington, Lafayette, the Boston Tea Party, Birmingham, or our Vulcan Statue.  Write on!

Pizza Passport

 One interesting gift we received for Christmas was a Pizza Passport. (It was such a great idea, I bought one to give as a gift, and also received one from someone else.)  These are nifty little "passport" sized booklets made for a number of major US cities, listing the prominent independent pizzerias in the metro area.  For each restaurant, one can find basic information on location, history and specialty pizza, and after visiting, you can record and rate your experience.  So we have our project for the coming year!  Many of the places listed in the Birmingham passport are familiar to us.  A few are new to us.  One that is listed unfortunately closed permanently earlier last year.  And a couple we like are not listed; but the book has several blank pages to record those.

So we began the Great Pizza Journey of 2026 last night at Tortugas Homemade Pizza of Hoover, Alabama (there is a second location on southside Birmingham).  This is a venerable old shop we've visited before, but not for many years.  It is the area's only pizzeria devoted to Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  It was founded in 1999 by Carlos Vizcaino, an immigrant from Ecuador with ties to Chicagoland.  Inside the shop are many Chicago flavored wall decorations: newspaper clippings, photographs, sports jerseys, and the like.  Ambiance is bare-bones strip mall casual.  There is a generous amount of table seating in the two "wings" each side of the kitchen area, but on a Saturday night we saw the place fill quickly, with several waiting to be seated as we left.  When we arrived, we were quickly seated, but waited about 15 minutes to first be served.  Once our server finally arrived, things went smoothly.  We ordered drinks to enjoy during the advised 45 minute wait for our deep dish pizza to be baked. We ordered the passport's recommended pie, the Wrigleyville, with smoked sausage, Italian sausage, green bell peppers and onions. (Tortugas also does standard thin crust pizza which arrives much faster, based on what we could see of nearby patrons.)  Our pie was worth waiting for, as the server no doubt routinely assures impatient customers.  Light, crisp crunchy crust envelopes a generous amount of fillings, cheese, and sauce.  The sauce is tangy, with rich tomato flavor and a hint of herbs.  Knife and forks, and a sufficient amount of napkins are provided to enjoy this hearty pizza, a worthy example of the Chicago style.  It was indeed worth the wait.

Passport score: 4 of 5

Tortugas of Hoover, Alabama

Casual, with Chicagoland memorabilia everywhere

The Wrigleyville pizza

Snow Day

 

Two days ago, on Friday the 10th, we in the Birmingham metro area woke to a blanket of fresh white snow.  For this area of the country, this is a rare event that happens maybe once every other winter, at most.  Fortunately, this event was well predicted, which allowed nonessential workers like me to stay home and enjoy the scene from the warmth and safety of home.  Area roads were, for a time, icy and impassible.   So after the initial wonder at the falling flakes and a brief trek outside for few photos, I was able to concentrate on more pressing matters:  Postcrossing.   Houseguests and holiday activities have meant that I have not devoted much time to writing postcards lately.  And with my status as Alabama's #1 Postcrosser to defend, I have been trying to catch up on my postcards over the last couple days of this unplanned long weekend.  By tomorrow morning, Monday, I should have about 40 outgoing cards to drop in the mail.  That includes several to Canada!  The Canadian postal worker strike has been resolved, and the mail backlogs cleared, so the USPS and Postcrossing have both resumed sending postcards to Canada.  I have really come to enjoy the contemplation and ritual of drawing an international address, selecting a card appropriate for the recipient, placing stamps, writing a short message, and addressing the card before sending it off on its (sometimes) very long journey around the world.  Several cards I wrote this morning will be going to China, about as far away as possible on this globe of ours.  Well into my second decade of this hobby, I enjoy it even more than when I first started.

And that rare snow event that gave me the chance to catch up on my Postcrossing?  More cold weather and perhaps even snow is possible before the end of the month.  Get ready, USPS, for another pile of cards!  Write on. 

Sweet Home Alabama

 After a whirlwind weekend in New York, it was suddenly time to head home.  After the long day Saturday, the 8:30 am start for our return journey came early.  But wifey and I managed to get packed and ready to go with enough time remaining for essential morning coffee and breakfast at Jake's, the in-house coffee shop in the Knickerbocker Hotel.

Our UAB Alumni group then gathered in the hotel lobby and boarded the bus to LaGuardia Airport and retraced our steps home:  LGA to DCA, a short layover at Reagan Airport, then the last leg to BHM Shuttlesworth Airport and home.  In contrast to the outbound flights, the trip home was smooth, uneventful, and on time.  Almost.  We landed on time in Birmingham and taxied directly to the gate.  But American Airlines wasn't going to allow an entire trip to go completely without trouble.  We pulled up to the gate and then sat many minutes, waiting as nothing happened.  It turned out the jetway malfunctioned, and it was several more minutes before a tractor could be sent to tow our aircraft to another gate where we finally got off the plane.  Miraculously, our luggage was waiting on the baggage claim carousel when we reached it, and the adventure officially concluded.  We were home, our first real travel in over four years was complete.  It was a fun and memorable weekend.  Here's hoping the next one isn't so long in coming.

#winasone

 The day eagerly anticipated in the Deep South is here at last: College Football Season is fully here.  Sure, there was a "Week 0" game last weekend in Dublin, Ireland.  But with the kickoff tonight of the UAB Blazers vs Alcorn State Braves at Protective Stadium, the season is officially underway.  Second year head coach Trent Dilfer expects an improved Blazer defense this year to support the impressive offense led by quarterback Jacob Zeno.  On a warm late summer evening, the Blazers will work towards getting the season off to a strong start.  While I certainly hope for a good result from the Blazers, I also am looking forward to one of life's guilty pleasures:  stadium food. 

Addendum: UAB won, 41-3. Go Blazers!

It's in the mail 8

 This morning, as the nation struggles with a widespread computer network malfunction, I ponder a simpler time when communication didn't depend on digital equipment.  So today I focus on another in an ongoing series of postal collection boxes.  This one is outside the door of Jefferson Tower, part of the sprawling complex of buildings that comprise UAB University Hospital (which was just - once again - named the best hospital in Alabama and one of the tops in the country.)  JT, as we UAB employees call it, is a 1940s era high rise structure that was once the main hospital building in Birmingham.  It replaced Hillman Hospital, the adjacent building which was built in 1888 as a small charity hospital.  So for over 100 years, doctors, nurses and countless patients have passed the site of this mailbox, and no doubt many sent letters from it to tell friends and family of their medical condition.  Hopefully for most, it was a message of good news.

Eat local, drink local

Often, in the throes of despair over Alabama's well-deserved abysmal reputation, notably in her universally incompetent and corrupt politicians, I console myself in my home state's finer qualities.  Primarily as an unsurpassed destination for food and drink.  Perhaps unknown to the wider nation, The Heart of Dixie is a gustatory mecca worth writing home (or blog posts) about.  So on Friday after a long week of work in the laboratory, I stopped to pick up some local products to enjoy through the weekend.

What I brought home is a result of remarkable changes in the state over the last few years.  I first stopped at Beer Hog, a bar and package store offering over 60 beers on tap, and many more in packages.  The very presence of the store would have been unthinkable a few years ago.  But back in the mid 1990s, a grass roots group called Free the Hops sought to change Alabama's restrictive alcohol laws which limited the alcohol content (ABV) of beer to such low levels many quality beers were prohibited from sale statewide.  It was slow going at first, as the young activists climbed a steep learning curve while tackling the forces arrayed against them.  They fought not only sanctimonious Baptist state legislators, but big-business beer distributors who saw any change as a threat to their comfortable business monopolies.  In the end, after repeated attempts, Free the Hops succeeded in changing the laws to allow "high gravity" beers, and the beer landscape in Alabama was instantly changed for the better.  With growing momentum and legislative prowess, Free the Hops went on to change restrictive state laws to make it easier for small craft brewers to set up operations.  And then, that their products might be more easily distributed.  So when I came home from Beer Hog with two growlers, or fill-to-order containers, of locally produced craft beer, I was enjoying the efforts of years of activism by my fellow beer aficionados.  On Friday, I selected Chill Pils, from Straight To Ale, a craft brewer in Huntsville, and Snake Handler from Good People, one of the older brewers in Birmingham and the state.  That latter is a mind-blowingly potent double IPA, which I've long said is the best beer made in Alabama.  Too, earlier in the week I enjoyed beer at small local brew pubs very near my house:  Oversoul Brewing in Helena, and Siluria in nearby Alabaster.  Both offer superb products and it's awesome they are so close to home.  All this is only possible because of the activists with vision, and the small business owners with the determination to build their reputations with excellent products.

Along with my cold brew, I've been enjoying some boiled peanuts from Alabama Peanut Company in downtown Birmingham.  This is another amazing small business success story.  Alabama Peanut has long been a fixture of the heart of the Birmingham business district.  But in the early lockdown days of the Covid pandemic when the surrounding office buildings went vacant, the business faced a dire future.  Fortunately, the owners turned to innovative means to keep the business afloat.  Among other things, they offered free direct deliveries of their products to different regions of the metro area on a rotating basis.  This is when I became a devoted fan of boiled peanuts, as containers of fresh, still-warm goobers would be dropped off at my front door - even though I lived in a distant suburb, many miles from the shop.  When normality eventually returned to life in the city, Alabama Peanut continued to innovate.  Today, the shop has been remodeled from its spare, industrial warehouse look into a warm and inviting snack bar... with a liquor license!  One can now stop in and order a cold beer to go along with one's flight of flavored peanuts.  Superb!  As far as boiled peanuts go, they may be a little off-putting to the uninitiated.  But I've grown to appreciate the vast, seemingly endless variety of flavors that they can be infused with.  Alabama Peanut offers a couple different flavors each day, and on Friday I came home with a tub of delicious sauerkraut and Conecuh boiled peanuts.  (Conecuh is a famous smoked sausage made in Alabama.)  On a warm sunny Sunday afternoon, hot peanuts and cold beer is an unbeatable combination!

So while my home state continues to reap national scorn and mocking from its clownish US senators, I can at least proudly enjoy delicious locally produced snacks!

Imagine, Dragons dancing

 March Madness is upon us.  This weekend, the various conferences concluded their tournaments before Selection Sunday ceremonies Sunday evening.  In the AAC, the UAB Blazers coasted to a comfortable 85-69 victory over the Temple Owls, who fell just short of an amazing Cinderella story tourney performance.  A conference cellar-dweller all season, Temple went on an impressive four-game run to earn a spot in the final game.  But the Owls could not overcome the hot shooting Blazers, who repeated the beatdown they served Temple ten days prior in the regular season.

Under the leadership of alumnus coach Andy Kennedy - the author of UAB's winningest four season stretch in school history - the "Bartow Standard" has returned to UAB.  Blazers once again join the Big Dance, and face San Diego State University (ranked 25 in this week's USA Today rankings) in Spokane, Washington of Friday.  Should the Blazers upset SD State and advance to the second round, they will likely face in-state neighbor Auburn, winners of the SEC Tournament Championship.  Such a matchup would give many Alabama college basketball fans a difficult choice of who to root for.  Let the madness begin!

Cut the cheese

 Despite a dismal reputation (well deserved, in certain respects), Alabama and Birmingham still can boast some admirable qualities.  The city, in fact, is a premiere foodie city.  Many great and award winning restaurants.  A vibrant and growing craft beer community.  And many purveyors of fine food provisions.  A relatively new member of the latter community is Son of a Butcher, a luxury meat, fish and cheese shop.  It was here that I bought a delicious beef tenderloin for a Beef Wellington for dinner last Christmas.  I often stop in to pick up treats from their small but excellently curated cheese selection.  With a dedicated cheese monger on site, one can usually find high quality cheese there that arrive from around the world.  In fact, it is one of the only places in town that I can get some of my favorite- authentic English Stilton.  So in this spirit, SOB last night held one of their regular Parmesan Reggiano cheese crackings.  They do this every couple of months with a new 90 pound wheel of the "King of Cheese".  The wheel opened last night was particularly rare- one of only 100 wheels made each year by the particular Italian cheese maker, and this wheel was one of only six that made it to the USA this year.  Attended with wine, bread, charcuterie and olive oil tastings, the cheese was opened, and generous tasting samples were provided.  A large crowd attended, and one had to be patient to finally obtain a wedge of the precious cheese to purchase.  But I ultimately did, and hurried home in the cold, rainy night with my small block of concentrated Italian goodness.  Thank you to SOB, and the cows of Italy for the tasty treat!

Win as one

 

Today was the last home game of the 2023 season for the UAB Blazers.  The Blazers managed to muscle through to a 34-24 win over Temple.  It's been a disappointing season for the 4-7 Blazers, and with one more regular season game to go, they have no prospects of post-season play.  Disappointing, too, for first year coach Trent Dilford, who came into this season with such high hopes and expectations.  But today, Blazer fans appreciate a hard-won victory, and nurture hope for the future.  Go Blazers!

It's in the mail 7

 These days, neighborhood collection boxes are much rarer than they used to be.  They are found only in older neighborhoods; new subdivisions seem to be built without a convenient dropoff point.  This all draws attention to the ones that still exist.  I mean, we're not talking about Dollar General stores or Starbuck's, which can be seemingly found on every corner.  So that's what makes this forlorn box more notable.  It's in a neighborhood on Birmingham's southside, at the fringe of UAB campus.  I just wonder why with boxes so scarce, there is still this one, precisely one block away from the South Highland post office.

It's in the mail 2

 I came across another interesting mailbox recently.  This one is in an old neighborhood on the southside of Birmingham. There has been a mailbox here for many years, as long as I can remember.  But this particular one looks relatively new.  And when I got closer, I noticed a feature I've never seen before: the mail drop door had been replaced by a narrow slot.  This is, I gather, an anti-theft device, intended to combat the growing threat of mail fishing.  Yes, in 2023, people still send checks by mail often enough to attract thieves who steal the checks and forge them for their own use. Thieves can drop an object on a string with sticky adhesive attached to grab mail in a box and pull it out.  So the new slot, with pivoting metal fingers that form a one-way valve of sorts, effectively prevents this.  First time I've seen this device, though it appears to be more common in places like New York.  If it increases the security of mail, I'm all for it.

National Pizza Month 2

 As National Pizza Month rolls on, I decided to try another version of the standard margherita classic, for scientific purposes of comparison.  Previously, I have samples pizzas here and here.  Today, I stopped at Giuseppe's Cafe, a small independent restaurant near my workplace.  This time, the margherita was not strictly a standard Neapolitan pizza, but perhaps an American interpretation of it.  The crust was not the light, pillowy, crispy-yet-chewy triumph of Pizza Grace, but more of an American thin crust standard.  The toppings were typical margherita simplicity: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil.  But curiously, no sauce.  Cheese, diced tomatoes, and a generous splash of oil, topped with a chiffonade of basil.  The pizza would have benefitted from the flavor of a rich sauce base.  Instead, the pizza was rather bland.  Perfectly edible, but lagging behind the others I have sampled so far.

Giuseppe's Cafe: Margherita

It's in the mail

 Among the various social media sites that I regularly visit are a couple of quaint ones that are devoted to mailboxes.  Since they are in England, the mail collection boxes, or pillar boxes, are often very old and usually have a lot of character.  They also tend to be located in scenic locations which makes for beautiful photography.  This inspires me to follow their example, even though my efforts may not be as compelling.  The standard USPS blue collection box doesn't seem to be as photogenic as an English pillar box, and their locations not as scenic.  Regardless, I now present the first in what I hope will be a long running series:  mailbox spotting.

First up is a box incongruously located at the edge of a suburban strip mall parking lot.  I wonder who uses it- the nearby store staff?  Perhaps passing customers?  It has both a walkup drop slot and a drive-by chute for automobiles.  I'm curious how much this peripheral box is used.  

 

Pizza Grace

 After months of good intentions, I finally paid a visit to a nearby pizza joint for a meal.  Pizza Grace may be located in a college town, but it's not your typical frat boy hangout.  Recently nominated for a James Beard Award, Pizza Grace offers authentic Neapolitan pizza made to exacting standards.  For my first visit, I tried the classic Margherita pizza made simply with marinara, mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, and basil. I was not disappointed- the crust was astonishingly light and crispy, with the large, pillowy pockets - alveolatura - that are characteristic of a well made dough. The tomato marinara sauce was rich and aromatic, and the cheese dense and flavorful. A triumph of the pizza arts!

Pizza Grace Margherita

After such a dinner, an equally captivating dessert is needed, and to find it I needed go no further than next door to Cannella Gelato.  What better way to follow the classic Italian pizza than with Italian gelato?  Here I was on familiar ground, as I happen to know the proprietor and have observed his passion for his craft.  He's received training in Italy, and is constantly honing his skills.  Tonight, I sampled Stracciatella and it was a delight!  With the smooth, rich, creamy texture of authentic gelato, I enjoyed a vivid rush of delicate flavor.  It seems almost a divine intervention to situate these two complimentary shops next to each other.  Birmingham certainly lived up to its foodie reputation tonight.

Cannella Gelato Stracciatella

Imagine Dragons

 Approaching a religion in the Deep South, college football is well and truly underway. This year, we are enjoying season tickets to games of the UAB Blazers.